Slum Rules (1–10)

Rule 1

The design of a slum is important.It brings dignity, quality of life, and symbolizes much more.

Rule 2

The status of a slum is important.Hybrid informal-formal status’ allow for the slum to breathe and grow yet provides the necessary legitimacy to be an accepted part of the city.

Rule 3

The image of a slum is important.When viewed as an asset of the city with a legitimate role to play, the conversation can totally change.

Rule 4

The entrepreneurial nature of a slum is important.It’s the self-driving engine that can propel the slum upward in perpetual forward motion. Capture and channel that already moving entrepreneurial energy.

Rule 5

The technology for a slum is important.It’s the greatest of all levelers of playing fields. Invest deeply into this.

Rule 6

The leverage for slums is important.Buying power should be consolidated to drastically drive down prices for the essentials.

Rule 7

The pathway for slums should be clear.Everyone should know what it looks like to enter a slum, transition through it, and end up with a better life.

Rule 8

The solutions for slums need to be nimble prototypes.We need to spend less time on big one-off long-term bets and more on quickly creating prototypes and tenaciously and quickly improving them with feedback.

Rule 9

The aspiration for slums should be ambitious.Slums shouldn’t suffer from the lack of imagination for change that they’ve endured for half a century, they need to be good at a massive scale and quickly.

Rule 10

The plan for a slum needs to be for the next world, not just this world.Society is rapidly changing due to advances in technology and the rethinking of physics and the world will operate very differently by 2030/2050.